


A new companion (Doctor who)

by castieldeansangel



Series: Time and Space: The Doctor and Elizabeth Sheppard [1]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Tenth Doctor Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2015-05-02
Packaged: 2018-03-26 09:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3846550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castieldeansangel/pseuds/castieldeansangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elizabeth Sheppard has always had a normal life, that until a group of cyberman or "robot-aliens whatever" as she later decides to call them, attack the city. And then, her life changes forever when this amazing Doctor shows up to save everyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A new companion (Doctor who)

I was on the incredibly large line of the supermarket, carrying several boxes of cereal and cookies in both hands because there were no shopping cars anymore and the cyberman, or slave robots (as most of the people used to call them) were out of service or something like that.

When I looked at my watch, I frowned because it was already 12:27 in the afternoon and my boyfriend had told me that he would pick me up at 1:00. At least there were only three more people in front of me so I wouldn't take much longer.

I peered about the place to see the poor bastards who were at the end of the line and felt bad for them, but suddenly something caught my eye. A cyberman began to walk towards the door, "that's weird" I thought to myself. But when I returned my gaze to the front, I saw how other two cyberman did the same as the first one, "Okay, that's  _weirder_ ". When I looked around the supermarket again, I noticed that every cyberman that was supposed to be out of service, was walking to the door. Something inside me told me that something bad was gonna happen, and not the kind of bad things that are fun to remember later, but the kind that make you run for your life. So I decided to listen to my instincts, and ran.

The people around me also noticed something odd was happening, but decided to ignore it, and looked at me as if I was mad. I rolled my eyes and thought "Fine, you stay with the robots that are out of control. I'm out of here!" I stopped running for a moment to think of a way out, the front door was obviously out of the question, so I only had one option: the back door. I had dated one of the cashiers for two months and I used to visit him, but visits at work time are forbidden, so we used to meet in the little alley behind the shop. Thank you so much, Peter the cashier!

I heard the screaming when I was four steps from the door, I knew I wouldn't be able to keep going if I looked back, so I didn't look back, and kept running instead. 

Just when I got out, I collided with someone. That someone was a man, a tall, thin, brown, spiky haired man. He smiled at me and said sorry. "It's fine." I returned politely, my mind deciding to forget everything and be in full-gentile mode for a moment, then a sharp yell cut through the air and everything came back to me. I intended to keep running, but stopped when I saw that the man was going to the supermarket.

"Don't go there, it's not safe!" I shouted just before he could get in. "Don't worry, not safe is more fun than safe!" He shouted back, a giant grin plastered on his face. After that, he disappeared by the door.

I was about to run home, but something inside me told me I shouldn't, that the right thing was going after the guy. "Guts, you saved my life once today, so you better be on a streak today." I told myself as I ran after the guy.

When I entered, I saw a cyberman touching a woman by the shoulder and sending some sort of electric current to her, then she fell to the ground, looking dead.

I turned around and noticed that a cyberman was approaching me, and right before I could do the attempt to escape, I felt someone pulling me by the hand, and I looked back and found the man I had entered the place for. He shouted RUN and I couldn't do more than nod and run as fast as I could. We run up the stairs, I was confused because I knew there was nothing up there, only some offices. But I kept running because I knew that was the only thing I could do, follow that mysterious man. 

When we got to the end of the stairs, we stopped by the first door and entered the room. If was a big room with a two tables in the middle, a coffee machine in a corner, and a vending machine in the other one. The man closed the door and pointed a little thing that looked like a pen and made a weird buzz sound at it. 

"What are you doing?"

"Closing it. It won't keep them out forever, but at least I'll have more time to find what I'm looking for." 

 "And what would that be?"

He looked at me directly in the eye and responded with a big, bright smile "A way to save us all."

"Great."

I was beginning to think that following him wasn't my best idea, he was obviously nuts. He was opening cabinets and drawers, taking things out and half-whispering, half-shouting "No, no! Where are you!?" 

"What are you looking for? I can help, if you want." He gave me a weird look, like if he had just remembered I was there.

"Oh, yes. I'm not very sure what it is, but it looks like some sort of remote control." 

"Okay, then." I turned my back and started looking.

Noises were coming from outside, those robots were trying to get inside. "You must be deleted." I swear I could hear them say that. Also screaming and yelling could be heard, muffled by the door, but still audible.

I felt the man’s eyes in the back of my head and my thoughts flew away, then I turned around again.

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s just that…” He stopped and seemed to be thinking what to say next. “You are different.”

My eyes widen with the statement, I was very confused. He hadn’t called me different in a bad way, it was obvious, but like if he was surprised and delighted at the same time.

“And what would that mean?”

“It means that, you saw a man running towards a very dangerous place, and instead of running away thinking about how crazy he is, you follow him. Then you ask what he is doing and help him, without even asking who he is.”

“So, you call me “different” just because I didn’t ask your name?”

He furrowed his brow and considered it for a moment, “God, the man really enjoys thinking” I said to myself and half smiled.

“Yes.”

“Well then, who are you?”

“There you go! I’m the Doctor.” He beamed at me.

“A Doctor? What kind of Doctor? And do you have a name?”

“No name, just the Doctor. And that’s the amazing thing, I’m a Doctor of everything. I can fix everything, or almost everything. I’ve never found anything I couldn’t fix.”  He spoke so quickly I almost missed what he said.

“Modesty isn’t a problem, is it? Now, Doctor, let’s find that remote control!”

I was feeling very excited, maybe a little bit too excited; considering the situation I was in, but I decided to let it go. We kept looking for about two minutes when I heard the Doctor growl and when I turned to face him I saw him taking his little thing which seemed like a pen, but wasn’t a pen and did the weird buzz. When he pointed it up, and around the room, making a grimace; he looked like insane and it made me question my most recent life choices. 

“Now I really wanna know what on earth you think you are doing!”

“I’m looking for the source of the signal" He was making this concentrated strange face, his brows pulled down and his eyes focusing everywhere.

"And how pointing your... pen or whatever that is everywhere is gonna help us?" 

He stopped and looked at his hand for a moment, then he looked at me "This isn't a pen, this is a screwdriver.  A sonic one, actually" He seemed pretty proud of saying that, but it didn't help me at all.

"Awesome, but how is a sonic screwdriver gonna help us find the remote control thing?"

"Oh, it's an amazing screwdriver, it can also receive signals and tell me where they come from." And with that, he returned to his task.

When he pointed to the table, his eyes widened "There you are!"

He walked to the table and touched the bottom on the table, until he yelled "yes!" And pulled a device that really looked like a remote control, it had a little green light in an edge.

"What is that?"

"The remote control if the cyberman, oh well, the emergency one." 

He took a pair of glasses from his pocket and examined the thing, then pressed a few buttons until the little green light turned red.

"Yes!" His smile was bright, very bright. The noise had stopped, no more screaming and no more smacks on the door. Everything was quiet. He came closer to me and hugged me tightly. I couldn't help feeling as happy as he did and laughed, I knew I looked demented, but didn't care. He stepped back and took my hand.

"Let's check if it worked." He said as we started running to the door and he opened it with his screwdriver. 

I was a little bit afraid of what we were gonna find on the other side, but hoped that whatever he had done had worked out well.

Three cyberman were outside the door when we walked out, they were standing still, they were off and all was because of the Doctor.

We left the supermarket, still holding hands. I was thinking about calling my parents when my phone rang.

“I’m sorry, I have to answer.” I told the Doctor as I let go his hand. He just nodded and took a couple of steps away from me.

“Where are you? Are you okay? Why didn’t you call? We are worried about you!” My mother blurted out the moment I answered my phone.

“Mum, I’m fine. I was hiding at the supermarket. I was too scared to call you, and how are you? How’s dad?”

“We are fine, we went to the basement when those robots entered to the house. Everything happened very fast.”

“I know mum, now I have to go. Take care and tell dad I called.”

“Wait…” I hung up because I knew that once she started talking there was no way on earth to stop her.

I got closer to the Doctor and smiled feeling embarrassed, when I looked around to avoid his gaze, I saw how everyone ran and hugged each other. Then I stood in front of the Doctor “Sorry, my mother was worried.”

“Don’t worry, I’m used to over-protective mothers.”

“Great. So, are you gonna explain me what happened?” I raised an eyebrow at him, expecting his answer.

“It’s a long and extremely weird story…”

“I don’t care, I like weird. That’s why I followed you.” I said with a smug smile and crossing my arms.

He looked at me, surprised. His eyes were wide and his mouth was slightly open. “Fine, then” he said, taking his glassed off and placing them back in his pocket. “Those cyberman were controlled by these… aliens. They are called Raxacoricofallapatorians, and yes it’s a long and hard to say name. I thought they were all dead, but they weren’t. They hated Earth a lot because they have tried to conquer it many times, but failed. So they tried one more time, they found out about cybermen somehow and used them as an army. There was a gigantic possibility for them to fail, and they knew it; so they made a plan B. They had two controls: they controlled cybermen by themselves with one of them, and the other was automatic, in case the first control stopped working, it would be make it work. Like an assurance.”

“Self-confidence isn’t one of the Raxacorico… whatever qualities, right?”

“They have failed many times, their principal intention wasn’t to have control of the world, but to destroy it. They knew it would be hard, so they wanted to be sure the world would end even if something happened to them.”

“But they didn’t think you would appear and ruin their plans.”

“Actually, that’s exactly why they had a plan B. I have a… reputation, I’m kind of a threat. Known for saving humanity every time I see a chance”

I was impressed by the way he spoke, as if he was much more than just a human, as if he wasn’t one of us. As if he was much more than that.

 “Are you human?” I swear I didn’t want to be so direct, but I couldn’t help it.  

“Not exactly”

“That means you are an alien. Just like the ones who tried to destroy us, more than once, as it seems to be.”

“I’m not at all like them, they come from Raxacoricofallapatorius, and they are green and fat. Also, they tried to kill you; all while the only thing I did was saving you.”

“Then what type of alien are you? Where are you from?”

He didn’t say anything and just looked away for a moment with his teeth clenched, like remembering something he didn’t want to think about. It seemed like an intimate moment, so I glared somewhere. The silence was much shorter than I thought it would.

“I’m a Time Lord. My planet name is-was Gallifrey, it’s gone now.”

“Gone?” I had lost control of my mouth, damn you Sheppard genes! No-filters seemed to run in the family.

“Yes. There was a war, the greatest war of all and they all died. Everyone but me died.” He was staring off into space, his face blank, cold.   

“So, now what you do is save the world whenever you see the chance?”

“Oh, no. Not at all.” His easy smile came back as he spoke. “One of the perks of being a Time Lord is that I have my own spaceship, which also travels through time.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “I’ve got plenty of thing to do.”

“You travel a lot, then?”

“Kind of, yes. I find a lot of trouble while traveling, though. People say it chases me, anger is everywhere I go. But it’s very fun.”

“I can’t even imagine how awesome it must be.”

A crazy idea came to my mind, but I knew it was impossible. I could never travel with him, he probably thought he was too awesome to be with a stupid, simple and useless human.

“I get very lonely sometimes. I believe maybe I need someone, a companion or something…” Or maybe he did want someone. I bit my lip to hide my smile. 

“Maybe you do.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it. The look on his face made me lose hope, of course he wouldn’t want to travel with me! I would only slow him down and bore him.

“What is it?”

“I haven’t even asked your name.”

Relieve came to me, he was only worried because he didn’t know my name! Maybe my mother was right about me being a bit paranoid.

“Elizabeth, Elizabeth Sheppard.”

“Brilliant! Now, Elizabeth Sheppard; would you like to travel with me?”

“I’d love to!” I yelled, hugging him.

“You must understand it can be very dangerous, I will make sure nothing bad happens to you, of course; but I can’t promise it won’t be extreme and terrifying sometimes. Oh, and you’ll have to run a lot.”

“No worries, I like dangerous and I’m in good shape. The only thing I’m worried about is my family, what will happen with my life?”

“Time machine, remember?”

“Perfect, then. Sorry to tell you, but you will surely regret this.”

“Nah, I don’t think so.” He said shaking his head and making a funny grimace that I was beginning to think was something usual on him.

We smiled at each other. My face probably looked hilarious, but what did you expect?  I couldn’t believe what was happening. Travel through time and space! I couldn’t wait to tell my mother. That reminded me that I had parents, very over-protective ones, actually. 

“I must go home to prepare and tell my parents they won’t see me very often.”

“Of course, you go home, I’ll wait for you right here.”

With that I ran home. Oh, God! What a wonderful day! I stopped when I saw the main street; dead bodies were all over the place, cybermen were there too, looking cold and lifeless… My smile faded and one thought I was trying to avoid came to my mind. Life with the Doctor was like that, he said it himself. Danger was everywhere he went, that meant death. I had been so thrilled by the idea of traveling that I hadn’t even consider that, could I really bear all of it? I leaned on a wall and put my hand on my forehead. I had to make a decision, two options were put in front of me: stay here, with my family and my work in the firm as a lawyer; living a simple and common life until I get old and die… or go with the Doctor and live all kinds of adventures, which would probably contain a lot of dead people and aliens. I thought about it for a very long time then walked home.

“Oh, look; she remembered she has a family!” My mother shouted raising his arms to the sky, pretending surprise; when I arrived.

“How could I ever forget I have a family if you call me to remind it to me every hour?” I asked her sarcastically, while hugging her.

“God, I was so worried!”

“I know, mum. I was worried too.”

Then I walked towards my father and hugged him too. After that, my mother made some tea and we all sat on the couch.

“Mum, dad” I began, looking at them, trying to avoid the tears that were forming in my eyes. “I have to go.”

“Go? Where?” My mother expressed, standing up.

“A friend asked me if I wanted to travel with him, and I say yes. I will comeback, of course.”

“What friend?” I was surprised to hear my dad’s voice, he didn’t use to talk, he usually lets my mother talk while he only nods or shakes his head.

“A new friend, he is a Doctor.”

“But travel where? Please, don’t say America; they are mad there!” I had to laugh at that, I never really understood my mother’s hate for America.

“Don’t worry, it’s not America.”

“Then where?” My mother used to be very persistent.

“Everywhere, a trip around the world.”

My parents looked at each other, expressing their thoughts with their eyes, it was some kind of code I never understood.

“Okay, then.” They said at last.

After discussing with them a little more, promising to call and visit more often; I went to my room and packed up. Would it be cold? Hot? Rainy? I had no idea! So decided to pack a little of everything.

Then I shared goodbyes and hugs with my parents, there might have been a tear or two but I’d never admit, then left.

I walked to the alley with two full suitcases, dreading that maybe the Doctor had had second thought and decided not to take me, or that maybe I made him wait a lot. But I sighed in relieve when I saw him standing there, with a police box by his side.

“You came!” He grinned, raising his eyebrows.

“Of course I did! And what would this be?” I asked, nodding toward the box.

“This is my space ship. It’s called TARDIS, it means Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.” He explained, palming the Tardis with his hand. He looked so proud of it.

“That’s great. Acronyms are cool, but… will we fit?” He seemed to be expecting that question, because just as it escaped my mouth, he opened it and entered. I followed him and my mouth hung open. It was gigantic. “It’s bigger in the inside. Another trick of Time Lords.”

“Oh my God. You are full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but surprises are great! Not knowing is so exciting!”

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

He walked to the center, where there were some sort of controls and a big tube that went up to the ceiling.

“Now, where would you like to go? The biggest star of all? What about Apalapucia?Oh, that place is wonderful! Or maybe ancient Egypt? Cleopatra wasn’t that pretty.” He offered all those thing with a little sparkle in his eyes.

“I don’t know, they all sound beautiful. Surprise me, not knowing is exciting.” I mocked him, repeating his words and raising my brows.”

He laughed and pressed buttons and pulled some levers, making the Tardis shake and move.

“Oh, Elizabeth Sheppard. This will be fantastic!”


End file.
